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Mr. Baxendell also called attention to the increasing 
number of vessels which were reported as having foundered 
at sea, and Mr. Binney suggested that it might be owing to 
the greatly increased length of modern built ships, especially 
those constructed of iron. 
Mr. W. B. Johnson said, the fact referred to by Mr. 
Baxendell admitted of easy explanation. The materials 
now used in the building of iron ships were greatly inferior, 
both in strength and quality, to those used in ships built 
some years ago. In some cases, where a builder formerly 
employed iron plates three-eighths of an inch thick he now 
contented himself with plates only three-sixteenths of an 
inch in thickness, and the strength of the angle-irons, &c., 
was reduced in the same proportion. It was no exaggera- 
tion to say that the weight of the iron now used in building 
a vessel of a given tonnage was fully one-third less than 
was generally considered necessary some years ago; and 
besides this, the iron now used for ship’s plates was notori- 
ously of very inferior quality. No recently built iron ship 
could be found that would bear the bumping and straining 
which the “ Great Britain,” built a quarter of a century 
ago, bore in Dundrum Bay. 
